Hacked Guitar

Introduction: Hacked Guitar

Engage in a new musical compositional experience using capacitive touch sensors to trigger pre-recorded loops. This contains our open-source Arduino code, Processing sketch, and some pre-recorded wav files for such a project.

The hacked guitar is a project aimed at bringing code to life. At M3Lab we are actively inventing, participating in and designing new technologies, pedagogies, and experiences for engaging everyone in meaningful, public, and open-source coding opportunities. Our work is inspired by John Dewey’s emphasis on art as a fundamental form of human experience. And yes, learning through inventing is an art. This specific project was part of a larger interactive musical performance initiative, which employed and demonstrated various forms of coding (like the hacked guitar), live musicians, computer simulations, and public feedback that took place at the University of Calgary. Stay tuned for more ideas from the future.

Step 2: Arduino Building

2. Arduino’s come with 4 screw holes. Your holder comes with a set of screws that will be used to fasten the Arduino to it’s holder. (See Image 3)(See Image 4)

Connect Arduino Power to Breadboard:

*Here we begin dealing with Pins. The term Pins is deceiving, it actually refers to the slots in which jumper wires are inserted. On an Arduino the Pins line both lengths of the edges and are labelled with numbers and either Digital or Analog.

*This initial Jumper will be your Power Jumper that will Power the unit and sensors.

Connecting Sensors:

Sensor 1:

1. Next insert one end of a 1 M 5% Resistor into another positive pin slot, in the same column as the Power Jumper on the Breadboard, and then insert the other end of the same resistor into the “30” “a” pin slot on the Breadboard.

1. Next insert one end of a 1 M 5% Resistor into another positive pin slot, in the same column as the Power Jumper on the Breadboard, and then insert the other end of the same resistor into the “28” “a” pin slot on the Breadboard.

2. Next insert a Male/Male Breadboard Jumper into the Breadboard Pin slot “28” “c” and leave the other end of this jumper unattached and not inserted.

3. Complete the sensor connection by inserting one end of a Male/Male Breadboard jumper in the Breadboard Pin slot “28” “d” and then inserting the other end of the jumper into Arduino Digital Pin #6.

Sensor 3:

1. Next insert one end of a 1 M 5% Resistor into another positive pin slot, in the same column as the Power Jumper on the Breadboard, and then insert the other end of the same resistor into the “26” “a” pin slot on the Breadboard.

2. Next insert a Male/Male Breadboard Jumper into the Breadboard Pin slot “26” “c” and leave the other end of this jumper unattached and not inserted.

3. Complete the sensor connection by inserting one end of a Male/Male Breadboard jumper in the Breadboard Pin slot “26” “d” and then inserting the other end of the jumper into Arduino Digital Pin #8.

Sensor 4:

1. Next insert one end of a 1 M 5% Resistor into another positive pin slot, in the same column as the Power Jumper on the Breadboard, and then insert the other end of the same resistor into the “24” “a” pin slot on the Breadboard.

2. Next insert a Male/Male Breadboard Jumper into the Breadboard Pin slot “24” “c” and leave the other end of this jumper unattached and not inserted.

3. Complete the sensor connection by inserting one end of a Male/Male Breadboard jumper in the Breadboard Pin slot “24” “d” and then inserting the other end of the jumper into Arduino Digital Pin #8.

Your Arduino Unit is now complete. For each sensor there will be one Breadboard Jumper with a Male end that has not been inserted into anything, this end will serve as the capacitive touch sensor. You can either directly touch the jumper or attach the jumper to a conductive surface. For our purposes we will attach these jumpers to a copper clamp.

Step 3: Arduino and Processing Coding

Once you have downloaded the Arduino IDE and Processing, open the Example files from Github.

1. Open the Arduino IDE and open the Arduino_Sketch.ino file in the Arduino_Sketch folder.

Step 6: Extras

1. Conductive materials:

We initially used Conductive Tape as our conductive surface to attach the Breadboard Jumpers to, but this tape seemed to lose conductivity over time and was hard to ensure the jumper wire remained in good contact. To solves this issue we used the copper clamps, which come with a small hole ideal for ensuring contact between the jumper wire and the surface.